Friday, May 4, 2007

There are certain magical food products that are just too good to be true. Rice paper, or springroll skins, is one of them. While many of you have enjoyed these at various Asian restaurants, I bet most of you have never tried to use these at home. There’s no need for a long winded post today. What you see, is what you get. Simply dampen the rice paper and roll up some lettuce, and strips of meat and/or veggies.

These are very easy to make once you get the hang of how long to soak the paper. Since these translucent “skins” are so cheap, it’s ok to practice on a few to get the technique down. Once you do, you have an incredibly versatile wrapper for an infinite number of fillings. These are easily found in the Asian section of any large chain super market. As far as low-carb alternative to tortillas and flatbreads, these rice paper skins are like a millionth of an inch thick, and as I joked in the clip, I’m not even sure you can measure the carbs! Although, I’m sure someone will, and post a comment on the site.

If you are making a bunch of these, you can store them wrapped in damp paper towels. Just don’t stack too many on top of each other and you can keep them in the fridge for a few hours and they should be fine.

Hi Chef John,First of all, thanks so much for your great videos, they are truly informative and very helpful. My family tried your “Beans and Greens” recipe and it was both delicious and healthy. Thank you for that recipe. I will be trying your 3 stage pizza recipe this afternoon. I have been on this never ending search for great pizza dough and am looking forward to trying yours.

I do, however, have a question. My wife loves spring rolls, especially Thai spring rolls with the very thin, translucent wrapper. I found your recipe Chicken Caesar Spring rolls and thought, “This is it!”

However … I live in Los Angeles and after searching in two major food chains (Ralph’s and Albertson’s), one up-scale food chain (Pavilions) and a large Japanese supermarket, we could not find your suggested “rice paper spring roll skins”. We did find the Dynasty brand Egg Roll/Spring Roll but these are for frying and steaming. I don’t think I could steam your Chicken Caesar presentation, especially the chicken (I could be wrong). I’ve used the Dynasty brand wonton wrappers and they work fine for that dish.

Bottom line, do you have any suggestions of how I can get that very thin, translucent wrapper. Your feedback would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Oooh! I love quick and easy wraps but I'm very tired of tortillas. I love spring rolls because the rice paper is just there to hold everything together -- and that's all I really want it for.

I live in Minneapolis and we have every kind of grocery store (and restaurant) you can imagine so I'm sure I'll have no problems finding the skins.

Question: How long do the skins remain fresh once made into a roll or wrap? I know overnight is out of the question. (Can you say rubber?) Will they be okay in the wet paper towel, in the fridge for about five hours?

Chef Jhon could you please do more such rolls etc because I really need them for lunch and lunchbox ideas....if it's not too much of a bother I had actually sent a food wish but never got a reply hope you get this message thanks